Applying that earlier study from memory. I think it went pretty well, but the perspective is cooler in the ref pic. Anyway, I find doing these to be really useful Also once again trying to paint stuff with as few brushtrokes as possible. I'm really enjoying it even though I'm not that good at it yet. There is just something awesome in doing, for example a face with just a few brushtrokes.

I've seen a lot of improvement in technique and that was already really strong. You've got a decent sense of lighting and it's improving regularly and your color stuff is VERY strong. I'd love some suggestions on some study material for that because I need it badly.

The big thing I see letting your images down though is composition. Something that might help is a book called: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang. It was required reading freshmen year at my art school and it breaks down compositional theory really well.

If you're wish my blog and thus portfolio are available for comment. I can always use critique.

@Aaron_Radney: Thanks man! Yeah, my composition skills are really bad and it's definitely holding my stuff down. Really need to study that stuff and I will. Also, thanks for the reading suggestion. I downloaded and read it yesterday and it was pretty damn useful. It was really easy to understand and simple, but effective. Thanks again.

@Izzual: Thanks I will.

@kingkostas: Hooooooly thanks I will definitely do that!

Just some quick faces from imagination to start the day. Will probably upload something more later today

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Yeeaah and the sites up again! We'll see for how long it will be up though.... Anyway. I had almost no time to do art last week, because I had to go to this camp.

Basically, in Finland all finnish males have to go to the army or do non-military service. If we refuse to go to one or the other, we'll have to spend something like half a year in jail. So anyway, I chose non-military service, because I'll have a lot more free time and it's basically like working a regural job. The bad news is, I have to spend this first month in a camp where they teach us some shit and because of that I won't have a lot of free time to draw. I also won't be able upload anything here, so this'll be a slow month for me.

This weekend I had some time to do some stuff, so I thouhgt I'd post those.

Finished this one. No ref

I did this one pretty fast. It's still very rough and I'm not even sure if I'm going to finish it, but I like the idea. No ref

I don't even know what this is, but it's something i did without putting much thought into it. Also I just noticed that the arms are too big . No ref

A portrait I did yesterday. Was looking at janaschi's work while doing it. It's not finished either and the neck area looks bad.. No ref

Really liking that first one you done! Looks great!
I know a couple of guys who lived here in Ireland that had to return to their homes to do the same thing you have been called up to do. I cannot imagine it's fun. It will be done before you know it though and you can trow yourself back into your art where you belong!=] Keep up that hard work!

Sorry to hear about the active duty, man! But like V3T says, you'll be done before you know it and that much more hungry to get back to drawing and painting. All the updates are on the right track, man, just keep pushing yourself, as Kostas said. Values and edges are becoming more and more critical in my own work, and I'm sure you're aware of how important they are, so take special notice of them while painting. Keep working, man!

I like your style and your colours a lot; your brushwork and the earthy tones you tend towards give your work a nice natural look. The faces you're painting are looking really nice, my two crits would be to work on other angles more (the frontal ones are great; the 3/4 needs work) and to try varying age/race/gender a little bit... we all have things we default to, but getting a handle on different character types is not only a good skill on its own, but also helps bring back more personality and variety to the sorts of faces you prefer to paint. =)

Just a little update on that study I did earlier and also a brand new study of an old man. I didn't care about getting the likeness down for the old man picture. It was all about brushtrokes and colors for me. Probably took like 1-2 hours.

Oh wow, I really love the skintones on those last two. Lovely variation of hues. Watch the use of darker texture brushes on skin, especially on women - the one in post 194 kind of looks like she has stubble, or at least a very dirty face. (Though if it is meant to read as dirt, you're heading in the right direction but not quite there.)

You did a good job with the study in 195. Hues look really nice, and you were able to bring alot of it in to the one from imagination. The hues work quite in the imagination one, comparing to the reffed girl, don't forget to push the values, and bring some hard contrasting pairs, like clear edges and all that. You did this wonderfully on the reffed one, and it resulted to me reading it alot more deeply, the whole whing pops nicely. On this imagination one, you're almost being too nice to the hues and not putting opposite pairs next to each other, it's kind of halfway there and the result is not as powerful.... Very easy to fix, especially since you have done it great on the reffed one....just keep it in mind.

@LastGen: Thanks man #205 took a little over 2 hours and #206 took about 1 and a half hours. Atleast for me that's quick

I felt like doing a selfportrait, so I did just that. I did it in about 1 hour and 40 minutes and I quess I could've worked on it longer, but I just didn't feel like it. Anyway, I think it looks okay and I'm somewhat happy with it. I'll do better next time though.

cool self portrait mate,maybe try doing a study without relying to much on opacity jitter-
laying down clear and simple shapes(kind of like if you were painting with oils)and then
blend the edges as you see them.that just a little haggle I had because that self portrait is good
just the shapes are a bit unclear.